Semantic

Semantic

1. The branch of linguistics that deals with the study of meaning, changes in meaning and the principles that govern the relationship between-sentences or words and their meaning

   • Is the study of the relationship between signs and symbols and what they represent the study of meaning in language
     • It's a vide subject within the general study of language
     • pragmatic
       • Focus: language. scope/range broad as it deals with aspects beyond the text, Meaning of an utterance context depend. domain: rhetoric
     • Semantic
       • Focus: meaning. Scope/range: norrow as it deals with only meaning. meaning of an utterance: context-independent. domain: grammar
     • Denotation
       • Of word is the core, central or referential meaning of the word found in a dictionary described in terms of a set of semantic features that serves to identify the particular
         • Depend on:
           • the culture, the language (family and/or educational background) the language (social and/or political class) the language (speech community and/or ethnic group etc.)
       • what a lexical item means, core. central, refential
     • connotation
       • Is the additional meaning it shows peoples emotions and/or attitudes towards what the word refers to
         • Example: child
           • Child is denotatively describe as (+Human) (-mature) and (+/- male)
       • Emotions and/or attitudes forward what a lexical item refers to, peripherial, social effective